We Smell A Rat

A giant rat photo was posted online claiming that the rodent was four feet long and bigger than a Jack Russell dog.

16:55 16 March 2016

A photo of a giant rat has been uploaded and shared numerous times on social media. In the photo, an electrician is holding the rodent close to the camera after he found it dead in a bush on a housing estate in Hackney Downs, east London. His colleague, Tony Smith, claimed that the rat was four feet long and was bigger than his cat and Jack Russell dog.

 

"We were going to stick it in the bin," said Tony. "But before we did we thought we better take a picture... people won't believe it's real."

 

However, many were skeptical about the photo. One of them is Professor Jane Hurst from the Institute of Integrative Biology at the University of Liverpool who said: "There are several hoaxes showing rats like this online or previously published in newspapers.

 

"Even a Gambian pouched rat, which is 3ft long, only weighs around 1.5kg."

 

Although the rat really looked like a giant in the said photo, many claimed that it was a case of “forced perspective” which happens when things are held closer to the camera. It is the same technique used for those photos that seemed a person is pinching the top of a tall building or holding their friends in the palm of their hands.